Something Wicked This Way Comes Act I
by deathbydays
Summary: High school graduates Natsu and Lucy have been best friends for a very long time, almost as though they're brother and sister... but something's not quite right with that comparison. No, Natsu has had feelings for Lucy for a long time. This is the story of him trying to gain her affections.
1. Chapter 1

Natsu Dragneel. 18. Graduate of Magnolia High.

Lucy Heartfilia. Also 18. Graduate of Magnolia High as well.

Both have been friends since they were children and went to the same elementary school together. They've been best friends from the start, completely inseparable. They've had their ups and downs much as any good long-standing friendship does, but they have always been thick as thieves. They're so close that they have broken up with people for the simple flaw of not approving of their close friendship, a consideration for any good relationship. So close that they have chosen to go to the same college together. So close in fact that they have also chosen to study magic together.

Of course with their interests being different, they both chose different paths along with which to follow their magic. Lucy chose celestial spirit magic and had a wicked pair of gate keys and celestial pals to go along with her chosen path, and Natsu had his adoptive dragon father to help teach him how to use fire magic for his chosen path. Ah yes, magic is a thing here in this world – their world. The one key difference between these two and their chosen magical paths is that only one has been chosen to take part in the magical resort known as Fairy Tail, and that would be the one and only Natsu. Lucy was quite jealous of this, but tried not to let it taint her view of him or her friendship with him in general. It was so hard though when all she heard was what went on there and who did what, and the different fun missions he went on. She pouted often. It wasn't like he didn't try to get her in though, there just was never an open or perfect opportunity for him to do so.

Moving on; it was a perfect winter morning in December when they caught up with each other on their college campus. Nose red and sniffling with a scarf wrapped around her neck, Lucy walked up to Natsu and smiled. "Hey! So what are you up to this morning?"

Warm and heat-filled as usual, Natsu was perfectly fine and even offered a hug to Lucy, who gladly accepted in this weather. Natsu was so warm that the snow actually melted around him in spots where he wasn't even touching it, but that were still close to him. "Not much – but now that you're here, that can change!" He grinned and let go of his friend, leaving her to bare against the cold once more. She shuddered in the bare wind.

"Gee, thanks a lot. That's so kind of you! Where's chivalry when you need it?" She hugged herself, shivering gently and officially sat down next to him. "What class have you got today?"

"English. Like I really need it, I speak it perfectly fine!" Natsu huffed and then shrugged, looking away.

Scoffing, Lucy leaned over. "That is not _nearly_ enough of a reason to not take it, my friend. Besides it's not just for how you speak, it's about our language as a whole."

"Man, fuck the system. Rage against the machine or something. I'm hungry, wanna ditch?"


	2. Chapter 2

Natsu tried to convince his friend to join him just this one time in ditching from school, but she declined. A lot. In fact, so much so that he would probably never ask her again. So overall he was pretty unsuccessful. She always did like to follow the rules. "What a brown noser." He muttered to himself. If he _did_ ever attempted to ask her again however, then maybe he could coax her into it next time. Or not, who knows. If she just agreed to do what he wanted for once, he was so sure she would be able to let loose and have fun. What a wicked knot in her back she must have, no wonder she could be such a tight-ass.

While alone however, he had time to think for himself. He put his hands in his pockets and quietly sniffled the cold away, kicking at the ground as it crunched below him. He wasn't sure of where he was headed anyways, only that he just wanted Lucy to go out and have fun with him for once, even if it was at the expense of a grade or two. He just kind of wanted to know he was important like that, even though underneath all of the pouting he knew he was. He _was_ sure however that she was on his mind, as she usually was when things became quiet. A car drove by, whipping frost chilled air past his face and snapping him out of his stupor. He sucked in a cold breath through clenched teeth. His cheeks burned with heat as he realized he was thinking about Lucy _again,_ and his cheeks grew even redder as he felt the snow turn to liquid with every step he took. His temperature only rose the more embarrassed he became.

But what did he really have to be so embarrassed about?

He thought about her smile, and he smiled himself. He thought about many different things involving her including his crush on her, and realized that's what it was that he had – a crush. And a long-standing one at that. He clenched his eyes shut tight and cursed himself. What was he getting himself into? This was his closest friend! He couldn't risk everything and throw it all away just because she might turn it or him down. He decided that this was it, then and there he would promise to never reveal how he felt. He couldn't ruin it if he never admitted to it. Let's see how long that actually lasts, though.

Heading back to the Fairy Tail compound for the day, Natsu considered just going to lie in bed for the rest of it all. He didn't want to be alone with his thoughts when they involved Lucy and he could do nothing about it. He decided however to take a quest from the mission board in the main room and found something suitable to his liking that was pretty easy, although it was an escort quest. He grabbed the paper from the board and headed back to his room to prepare for such a trip, which wouldn't take him too long. Hey, you've gotta have all the food you can eat, right?


	3. Chapter 3

Thoroughly preparing himself and packing up his belongings with mainly food, enough to feed a small army might I add, Natsu finally decided he was ready to go on his trip. He ate about half of it on the way to the meeting point with his mark, though. A moment of silence for the brave food that never made it this far because he doesn't know what portion control is.

His thumbs placed themselves under the straps of his backpack and he pulled them straight ahead and away from his body, before letting them snap back against his shoulders. "Ah," He exhaled a single breath, "the great outdoors." If you considered the great outdoors to be a dirt road with a tree or two decorating the sides along the way. Natsu was rather happy that he didn't have to take a vehicle anywhere, and quite proud of himself for not picking up a quest that involved vehicles whatsoever. He was learning!

That was until he reached a train station that headed straight towards the city he was going for. Groaning loudly and holding his head in dramatized agony, he dragged himself onto the vehicle and solemnly ate a quick meal before the train took off in memoriam of his poor, poor stomach. Moments later, dramatized agony turned into real agonizing pain as he planted himself against the grains of wood on the floor, moaning. Glossed over eyes looked up at a loud stomping noise in front of him, to find large boots greeting his face.

A man wearing a bandana for a mask scoffed at the pitiful display greeting him back. He raised a fist high to the ceiling, and that's when Natsu noticed the gun he was toting in his hand. Suddenly he didn't feel so sick anymore when the man decided pulling the trigger of his gun in an enclosed space was a good idea. The bullet ricocheted off of the ceiling with a bright blast, so bright it blinded Natsu for a moment. Or more than a moment, as his vision in his right eye didn't seem to be coming back. All he could see was bright white in that eye and he began to freak out. He was raring to light something on fire, mostly the man with the gun despite his own circumstance of being on the floor. However the train came to a stop sooner than expected and before he knew it, the man with the gun was being confronted by law enforcement and taken away.

"The hell was that about?" He muttered confusedly under his breath. "And the fuck is this about?" He crossed his eyes or at least he thought he was crossing both of them as he couldn't exactly see out of one of them, and he blinked repeatedly... but it didn't go away. It felt as though his iris and pupil were missing and the only thing left was his white sclera seeing, pun intended, as how all he could see out of that eye was white. He still had a duty to attend to though, so he figured he would just deal with it later. After all, it didn't hurt, so what was the big deal?


	4. Chapter 4

As soon as everyone and everything had been cleared, Natsu was off of that train like a bat out of hell. He couldn't stand moving vehicles and didn't understand how everyone else could stomach them. He thought everyone else was the odd man out on this one rather than himself. Even if he couldn't handle them though, that was beside the point now, he had a job to do with no way to get there. Boy, all of this just to stop thinking of Lucy. And yet here he was, still thinking about her. He felt as though he had jinxed himself. He picked up his bags and carried on down a path toward the train station situated at the town he was to meet his mark at.

"Hey… wait." Natsu stopped in his tracks. "Why am I going through _all of this_ _ **just to avoid**_ _ **GOING TO SCHOOL**_?!" He snapped suddenly and slapped his own face. "Are you KIDDING ME?" And thus he had the realization that maybe he should stop and think once in a while. Maybe breathe, have some common sense. Or maybe the author should stop giving him a hard time. Nah.

After slapping his face thoroughly in one swoop and on the right side no less, Natsu realized something else. The color was no longer white in his vision, it was now completely black. In total darkness, he proceeded to freak out a little more. This was starting to feel serious, so he figured he would see a doctor when he headed in to town. Only that never happened because out of nowhere on his little trek, his vision cleared right up. He laughed a little and stopped, clutching his hands around his eye and felt ecstatic. With a new vigor found, he finished the trip to town and met with his mark.

It was just a little old lady who wanted help going to the grocery store, but it turned out to be much more than that. After helping her to the market, she asked for help going to her granddaughter's house and tried to set him up on a date with her. Then she needed her dry cleaning, and then she needed to visit a neighbor to get back a cup they borrowed for some sugar. After it hit sundown and Natsu had become worn down, the little old lady cut him off the hook and gave him his precious, precious jewel.

Either way with his sight restored, he now had to find a way home. The train from earlier had finally pulled back into its station, but he was still feeling queasy from earlier so it looked as though he was using his newly hard earned jewel to rent a motel room for the night as it was getting late.

"Thanks, grandma." Natsu sighed, heading over to the only motel in sight with his bags that he had been carrying all day. His stomach growled, as he also hadn't eaten since he had arrived in this town. Quite the sin for him. He gobbled up what he could and took off his clothes, jumping into bed and turning onto his back with a grunt.

An arm behind his head and a hand cupped over his eye, he pulled his hand away and stared at it for quite some time, wondering just what was wrong with his eye.


	5. Chapter 5

Natsu awoke the next morning only to freak out slightly over where he was, before remembering what happened yesterday. "Oh, yeah." He exhaled as he sat up. "Crazy day."

He ate the rest of his food that he brought along with and ignored a stomach growl not five minutes after he finished eating. He sighed at not having any more jewel left to buy food with, but he had enough left to catch a train ride home. Speaking of which he had to catch it like, now. He forgot for a moment about how he gets ill on vehicles but remembered soon enough when he was delegated to his normal spot on the floor. They were building quite the reputation with each other.

Whilst on the floor he experienced a moment where his vision reverted back to its state from yesterday and he began to freak out again, before it returned to normal once more. After that there was no sign of any foul play to be had. _Weird_ , he thought. _Why now of all times? What's going on with that anyways?_

He arrived home sooner than expected by an hour or so and headed back to Fairy Tail to put his belongings away, before he realized it was still early in the morning and that he could totally go to school for once if he wanted to. Seeing as how he would really like to tell Lucy about what happened, he decided _what the hell_ and headed over to school. Truth be told, he honestly just missed her as well and would like to see her for any reason.

It felt colder than the morning before, colder even for _him_ on his walk over to school and he decided to grab a jacket and bundle up before actually heading out. Placing his hands in his pockets, his mind drifted to Lucy and he almost ran into a telephone pole. Laughing nervously, he moved out of the way and carried on before getting lost in thought once more. This time however, he did run into a door that very unfortunately opened just as he walked by. He yelped and grunted, rubbing his face with his hand as he pulled away from the door, glaring at whoever was the culprit.

"Why if it isn't ol' Gray Filibuster. You did that on purpose, didn't you?"

Gray grinned and showed his stupid perfect teeth that were stupid, to Natsu at least. "You can't prove that, now can you? And by the by, it's _Full_ buster. Get it right."

"I know what I said." He scoffed, and they shared an exchange of glares before both chuckled and did a handshake. "How've you been? What are you doing here?"

"Grabbing some coffee. Been good but could be better, the usual. How about you?"

"Same ol', same ol'. You ditching again today?" Natsu asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Chronically." Gray flashed his teeth again, which were still stupid if you needed an update on Natsu's opinion. Despite ditching as frequently as Natsu if not more, he managed to still pass classes while Natsu… well, Natsu tries. That's what counts.

"Of course. I for one, am actually heading into school today. I've got business to attend to."


	6. Chapter 6

"Oh really, like what kind of business?" Gray asked, curious about what a chronic ditcher like himself could actually _want_ at school.

"I just need to see a friend. Anyways, how are you and you girl doing?"

"Aww man, you didn't hear? We broke up ages ago. I would've figured she'd have blabbed enough to the whole neighborhood that word would have gotten around. Yeah man, we're toast." Gray did some hand gestures to accentuate his point.

"Sorry to hear about that." Natsu sympathetically offered.

"S'all good. Hey, how's Lucy doing? You usually hang out with her, don't you?" Gray placed his hands in his pockets. His shirt had mysteriously disappeared and Natsu stared.

"Uh… yeah, she's doing good actually. But speaking of her, I need to go catch up with her before school starts. Peace." Natsu offered his fist to bump.

"See ya." Gray knocked his fist into Natsu's before they both took off walking in opposite directions.

Natsu continued on his way to school and actually had time before class started to catch up with Lucy. He had to do a bit of running around, but he eventually found her. As soon as he caught up with her, his mouth went a mile a minute trying to get out all the information about his eye and what had happened.

"Wait, what?" Lucy looked bewildered and unsure of what to make of all of this new information.

"Lucy, it really scared me." Natsu appealed to her, and her expression softened. She opened her arms to him and he instantly went into them and wrapped his arms around her, and she wrapped hers around him. They held each other for a few moments in a tight, reassuring hug before both let go. Lucy then shrugged.

"I don't know what to say, Natsu. But I really need to get going to class. Can we talk at lunch if you'll still be here?" She placed a hand on his arm, looking into his eyes with tight knitted eyebrows.

"Yeah, we can." He smiled, and she smiled back. But as soon as she turned and walked away, he frowned. They went their separate ways to their own classes.

In class however, Natsu only zoned out the entire time and was no better here than he would have been at home. All he could think about were eyeballs. But after a short while his mind drifted to more pleasant thoughts, Lucy related thoughts. He sighed contentedly, thinking about how they held each other this morning. A rather loud sigh got the attention of the professor though, who scolded Natsu and asked him if he would like to read the next passage of the book. "What book?" Natsu asked to a round of laughter.

After class and lunch with Lucy, Natsu ran into Gray at the same coffee shop.

"Dude, I totally felt up a girl today." Natsu said with a dorky grin on his face.

"Yeah right dude, and I made out with your sister." Gray took a sip of his coffee.

"But… I don't have a sister."

"Cheah, exactly. Shut up, nerd." Gray shoved Natsu playfully.


	7. Chapter 7

After his charming exchange with Gray, Natsu decided he really had to go, though in reality he just didn't want any more taunts. So with nothing else to do for the day, he headed back to the Fairy Tail compound. On the way his mind once more drifted to thoughts of Lucy. He sighed while thinking of her and nearly tripped over himself. With that, he 'hmph'ed and carried on his way.

Upon walking through the compound, he was practically a zombie on his way back to his room. Try as they might, no one could get his attention as his mind was elsewhere. Any time he left his room for any odd reason, he never realized that anyone was calling for his attention, which is until he was physically stopped by someone.

"Hey, quit acting like a zombie." They said, waving their hand in front of Natsu's face, when he nearly bulldozed into the person as he continued walking. They snapped their fingers in front of his face a few times.

"Hey! Natsu, you there? Anyone home?" The person knocked their knuckles against the side of his head as though it were a door. "Maybe if I do this enough I won't need to knock on wood anymore."

"Huh? What?" Natsu shook his head and pushed the hand away.

"Have you not been paying attention _at all_? We've been calling your name since you first stepped foot in here! Duh." They said into Natsu's ear, swearing they could hear an echo.

"Wha-? Oh. Sorry, you guys. I guess I just spaced out." Natsu looked around the room and attempted to speak to everyone, who just rolled their eyes at him.

"Boy, you can say that again."

After finishing whatever business he had in the main room he headed back to his room and collapsed on his bed, sighing. His large, empty bed. He thought about things – Lucy, himself, Grey for some reason. After lying in bed for a while though he attempted to try and actually sort through things that were bothering him, namely the obvious being the girl he had his eye on. He decided he really needed to relieve himself of all this dependency he had on Lucy. It was really beginning to become distressing, and in his opinion had become unhealthy ever since he realized he did in fact have a crush on her.

Natsu decided the best thing for him to do right now was to take his mind off of her, so with that he offered to himself to go do a mission. He accepted the offer and headed to the large board in the main room. The one he found was to save a village from a wacky time wizard who was threatening a small village. He groaned loudly and figured it was better than nothing. He'd at least get his mind off of things for a good while.

He groaned once more about having to go on a vehicle to get there, as it was rather far away. But he digressed, and decided to go pack up for another trip. At least he would get to miss school again.


	8. Chapter 8

After packing away plenty of food into a bag for his newest trip, Natsu took another good look at the description of the paper with the quest text on it and he nearly fell over when he finished reading it. What at first appeared to be a quest about a whacky time wizard threatening to send a village back in time to keep it from ever existing ended up just being the village wanting something done about a crazy guy who's been acting up and behaving strangely lately and making everyone think he's going to do something that he probably won't end up doing anyways because he's an old fart.

Natsu sighed and headed out, picking up some food on the way to the train station. If he was going to do this, he better be getting a nice meal out of it. Someone had to sort things out in that village and apparently there's no such thing as law enforcement there if _he's_ the one being sent to sort things out. Well, there _was_ law enforcement it turned out, but it also turned out that there's no law against being a crazy old man.

Once in the supposedly helpless village, Natsu found the old coot who upon confrontation ended up being very ornery and wouldn't calm down. What started as an argument turned into an altercation, mainly because he hit Natsu on the head with his cane.

"Alright old man, you asked for this." Natsu growled and grabbed the old man by his shirt and attempted to pull him out- I mean, calm him down. Just as things began to go from bad to worse, a young man stepped forward and interrupted. Both Natsu and the old man glanced over and looked him up and down.

"Dad? Dad is that… is that really you?" The younger man asked, and the old man let go of Natsu. Natsu let go as well in response and stepped back, confused. "Dad, I've been looking for you everywhere! Things haven't been the same since you've been gone."

"Oh, son," The young man's father cooed, opening his arms to his son who nearly ran into them, "things haven't been the same since your mother passed."

The younger man began tearing up and looked over at Natsu. He grabbed the redhead's hand and shook it vigorously. "Thank you, I just can't thank you enough."

"But, I didn't… do anything." Natsu's voice shook along with his body starting at the hand connected to his own. No one listened to him though, as the town had now gathered around the trio and somewhere in the cheering and confusion he ended up with a basket of fruit. He decided to cut his losses with getting paid on this one because food, and sighed as he headed back to the train station.

Once on the train a miracle happened, Natsu didn't get sick for once! Only because his mind was on Lucy once more, though. Damn that girl. Before he could get sick, he fell asleep to the thought of the girl he pined for.

After all of that weird drama in the village was said and done, Natsu was _still_ thinking of Lucy. He gave up and decided as he drifted off that he would think of some way to thank his friend for her help at school in calming him down and reassuring him.


	9. Chapter 9

A while later as the train was pulling into the station, Natsu awoke and could have sworn he saw Lucy lying next to him on the ground, which was until he actually awoke moments later and saw nothing next to him. He placed his hand flat where he thought she had been just to make sure, and unfortunately for himself he was right.

Once back at Fairy Tail, he almost literally found himself running into Gray. He decided this time to get some use out of their friendship and ask for some advice. "Hey, Gray?" Natsu asked as he passed by.

"Mm?" Gray nodded and stopped, looking back at him.

"So there's this girl I've liked for a while that I just can't get out of my head."

"Well how often do you talk to her?"

"Daily."

"Ouch," Gray sucked in some air. "Well, maybe you can try doing something nice for her. You know, from the heart or whatever. Show her you care or show her your feelings or… whatever."

"What do you have in mind?" Natsu looked up hopefully.

"Man, I can't give you all the answers. What works for me won't work for you, _but_ when I was first dating Juvia I gave her a trip to the spa as a gift. She really dug it."

"Thanks man, I'll try that." Natsu began walking away.

"Okay, but remember what I said. Don't pin it on me if it doesn't work out how you are planning it to." Gray shrugged and continued on his way as did Natsu, who grabbed his bathing suit from his room.

Natsu then decided heading to school would be the best plan for the day. Maybe his crush on Lucy wasn't so bad if she was actually getting him to attend classes for once. On the way to school, he called up the nearest spa facility and set up an appointment for that afternoon and at school, Natsu flagged down Lucy and told her to keep her afternoon open, and to grab her bathing suit from her apartment after school where he'd pick her up at. He can in fact pick her up as unbelievably, he has a car. He just tends to not use it too often due to the crippling motion sickness.

Once school had passed and Natsu had once again made an ass out of himself in class, he headed over to Lucy's apartment in his old car from the early 20 aughts and picked her up. He managed to keep himself pulled together enough to drive. What a miracle.

At the spa Lucy requested for Natsu to join her which he tried to back out of, but she wasn't having any of it. So he joined and they sat in a waiting room called a 'meditation room' and had tea. It was pretty boring from Natsu's perspective, but he was spending that time with Lucy which made it all worth it. They then had to undress for their massages and before Natsu could even think about Lucy undressing, he was accompanied to his own changing room where he was given a locker that came equipped with a robe and slippers. He scoffed at the items and changed into his bathing suit.

After getting undressed and then redressed, the pair made their way to a hot tub where they chilled together for a while.

"Hey, Natsu." Came Lucy's voice from the other side of the tub.

"Yeah?" He looked over and tried to avoid eyeing her up and down while she was looking.

"Thanks for being here with me." She smiled and he couldn't help but smile back.


	10. Chapter 10

Once their bathing had passed they hopped into a shower stall, still in their bathing suits and giggled as it reminded them of when they were children. They received a manicure and pedicure afterwards which Natsu tried desperately to get out of but he couldn't turn Lucy down, and they then sat in a dark room to unwind. All he could do was think of Lucy in her bathing suit and blush, and be grateful that the room was dark and that Lucy wouldn't be able to see his face.

Overall, they had a great experience and Natsu was glad to have listened to Gray on this one.

After getting dressed in their separate changing rooms and heading back to the car, Natsu decided to make a pit stop at a gas station nearby. He wanted to not only get gas, but also some alcohol and made sure to pick up some fruity drinks especially for Lucy as they were her favorite.

While exiting the convenience store, he saw a rather angry looking raggedy man talking- no, hitting on Lucy and he seemed to be getting kind of nasty about it seeing as she rolled up her window and locked the doors. Natsu headed over and pushed the man out of the way, illuminating his hand with a flame as he did so. The man got the message rather quickly and ran off, and Natsu smiled smugly to himself as he extinguished his hand.

"Natsu!" Lucy called from the car and he quickly got in on his side of the car.

"Yeah?" He looked over at her.

"What was that about?" Lucy raised an eyebrow and Natsu stared for a moment.

"What are you talking about?"

"You took that a little far, don't you think? I could have taken care of myself." Lucy huffed and folded her arms. Natsu took a moment to gather himself.

"Hey, I was just protecting you. I don't want you to get hurt. Look I'm sorry if it came off as anything other than that, but you'll be happy to know I got you something while I was inside the store." He reached behind him and grabbed the bag with the alcohol in it and handed it to her. He exited the car while she inspected the drinks and finished filling up the car. Once back inside she gave him an approving smile.

"Nice, margaritas. Any special occasion?"

"Just wanting to hang out is all. It's been a while." He started up the car and pulled out of the gas station.

Natsu took Lucy home and they both went inside her apartment. They put their bathing suits in with the laundry and got comfortable in the living room before sitting down with their drinks.

"Hey, let's play a game." Natsu offered.

"Oh yeah? Like what?"

"Truth or dare."

They did the classics, like 'dare: put an ice cube down your shirt' for Lucy or 'truth: do you have a crush on…' for Natsu and time flied by.

"Truth: what was the last thing you searched for on your phone?" Lucy asked.

"Pornhub." Natsu answered honestly and deadpan, and Lucy laughed. "Your turn! Truth: are you a virgin?" He raised an eyebrow and she paused.

"…Yes. Truth: are you?"

"Yeah." They both sighed at the same time. "Sucks, doesn't it?"

"You can say that again." Lucy took a bitter swig from her bottle.


	11. Chapter 11

At the end of the night, both Natsu and Lucy ended up falling asleep watching a so-bad-it's-good movie on Netflix – minus the chill of course. The next morning was another story where they had to go back to reality and that unfortunately meant school as well. Once awake, Natsu grabbed his bathing suit from the laundry room and grabbed Lucy's as well. He even laid it out on her bed for her. Having finished that duty, he moved on to the kitchen where he made coffee and woke up his friend only to hand her a cup to help with the hangover he was sure she had. They sat together for a while and debated cutting class today, but she convinced him to go with a simple flutter and bat of her eyelashes at him. She smiled once she won and left to get dressed, leaving him to his own devices.

Natsu decided to be a good friend and offer Lucy a ride to school, but on the condition that he had to stop at Fairy Tail on the way to make himself presentable for school. Not that he was anything but a slacker, he just wanted to impress her was all. Lucy agreed to wait for him in the car, but acted a little jealous and cranky considering she wasn't allowed inside. He was understanding and didn't make a fuss about how she acted.

Inside the compound, he ran into Gray who almost eagerly asked how things went with the spa the day before. "Good, good. Thanks for the advice." Natsu nodded.

"So…"

"So…?"

"Well? Did you get laid?" Gray questioned as though it were an obvious assumption.

"What? No." The redhead was taken aback a little by this.

Gray only laughed. "Oh man, what? What _did_ happen then?"

"Well… did _you_ get laid when you took Juvia to the spa?"

"Yes, of course I did." Gray stated as though it were once again obvious.

"Oh." Natsu paused. "But you were already dating her when you tried it on her, so of course _you_ would get laid and I wouldn't."

"So? Maybe you're just not trying hard enough or you're not being forward enough. Now let me ask you again, what _did_ end up happening?"

"We went to her apartment and got drunk, oh and we played truth or dare."

" _Seriously_? And you STILL didn't get laid?" The other scoffed in disbelief.

"No, but I wasn't _trying_ to get laid is the thing."

"Well there's your problem, bro! So disappointed in you."

"Whatever," Natsu rolled his eyes, "catch you later. Going to school."

Gray covered his mouth. "It's like I don't even know you anymore." His voice wavered and Natsu groaned.

After school was said and done for the day, Natsu looked at the mission board in Fairy Tail for a quick quest and an even quicker buck but luck was not on his side today. He sighed and stewed on some personal issues for the rest of the afternoon. At night he lie awake in bed, unable to sleep. Thus he decided to get up around midnight and go for a drive to clear his mind. He found a spot far enough away on a cliff that overlooked the entire city and sat on the hood of his car, breathing in the cool night air to clear his head. A single dimly lit street light illuminated his figure in the dark.

He had time to think about things. He thought about what drove him to keep going. What did he fight for anymore? It was her. It's always been her. Lucy.


	12. Chapter 12

After his drive out at night to calm his nerves and sort things out, Natsu arrived back at Fairy Tail rather late and once again ran into Gray who asked him where he'd been and what he was doing out so late. The redhead was a little suspicious of how he kept always running into the other man, and just how he was still awake.

"Do you never sleep or something?" Natsu raised an eyebrow, serious for once.

"Maybe." And with that Gray walked away, leaving Natsu on a cliffhanger. Maybe he was some kind of vampire, after all he did dress up as one for Halloween. Spooky.

Natsu decided to take a shower before attempting to sleep once more, it'd be his first proper one since being to that spa the other day – and the most he did here was rinse off after bathing in the hot tub with Lucy. Afterwards he merely tossed and turned in bed, still unable to sleep. He sighed and sat up, ruffling his hair with his hands. He got up before sitting at a desk close to his bed and grabbed some paper and a pencil, deciding to write Lucy a letter. Nothing big and nothing small, just enough to let her know he wouldn't be around for the next week or two due to his dad visiting from out of town. He wouldn't be in school either, though that was less shocking. His dad wasn't _really_ visiting, he just needed an excuse to take a breather from their friendship to see if backing off would help him to clear his head once and for all.

After finishing with the letter, he realized he could have just texted her, but why be so informal? …Really, he was just sticking to his guns now that he finished putting his thoughts, even if they were lies, into an actual letter. He shook his head of his temporary embarrassment and headed for Gray's room. Knocking on the door, he wasn't expecting an answer so soon. He really _did_ never sleep.

Natsu told Gray what he was up to but not who he was doing it with, and the darker haired man pat him on the back. "I'm here for you if ya need me, bud."

He took Gray up on his offer and asked him to come along with as he dropped the letter off. He wasn't _actually_ expecting Natsu to do that, but what the hell. He did offer after all. Gray had never been to Lucy's apartment anyways, so Natsu figured it would be safe for him to come along with as moral support. They then dropped off the letter in her mailbox and drove off eventually after some moping in the parking lot of her apartment complex – all from Natsu. Shortly thereafter, Gray told him to pull over.

He exited the car and walked over to the driver's side, and shoved Natsu into the passenger seat. "Hey quit it, this is my car!"

"Since when do you have a car anyways? You never use it and then suddenly you use it all the time now? Does it have anything to do with the girl you like or something?" Gray shook his head, ignoring any answers, and decided he and Natsu were going to have some fun to clear his head.


	13. Chapter 13

Natsu wasn't quite so sure what 'fun' would entail, but he sure as hell wasn't expecting a strip club. Gray drove the duo downtown to a specific building and the fiery one of the two wondered if he'd been there before since he knew right where to go. They couldn't find a spot once they arrived, a fine start to the night. "Oh well, guess we can't go in then!" Natsu sounded almost too happy to have the hope of avoiding such a… fine establishment.

"Nonsense, we'll just park down the street." Gray pulled out of the parking lot and began heading down the street.

"Uh, Gray. I don't know how to tell you this, but the most experience I've had with a strip club was in Grand Theft Auto – and even then I hardly ever went in. Only one time really, and that was on a role-play server." Natsu rubbed the back of his neck, outing himself as a dirty role-player and trying to do what he could to get out of this situation. Judging by how they were now parking down the previously mentioned street though he had a bad feeling he would not be leaving any time soon.

"Great, then you _have_ had some experience! Role-players take that shit seriously. Didn't know you had it in you, bromigo." Gray roughly pat Natsu on the back and unbuckled himself from his seat, completely missing the point. Natsu was hesitant to leave the car and was nearly forcibly pulled out by Gray.

The bouncer at the door seemed unfriendly and especially so towards Natsu as he glared straight through him, but not Gray for some reason. It was almost as though he could smell a newcomer. Once actually inside the building Gray sat down with Natsu at a table in the corner of the room, but left the redhead all alone moments later when a woman approached.

"Hey there hotshot, it's been awhile." She placed a hand on Gray's shoulder, leaning against him.

"Say hi to Natsu, he's having some girl troubles." Gray motioned towards his friend before pulling out his wallet and rifling through his cash.

"Hey Natsu, I'm sorry to hear that." She offered him a smile, he however was unsure how to react and clammed up. She ignored this and pulled on Gray's arm, leading him away from the table.

"See ya buddy, I'll be back later. I promise!" He called, not sounding very sorry at all for abandoning his poor friend as he was pulled into a secluded area in a back room separate from the main room he was in now. _Must be a VIP area_ , Natsu thought to himself. He then wondered if this was why Gray and Juvia broke up.

Now alone, he took in his surroundings. A bleak room filled with women trying to make a living who grinded on different men of varying shapes and sizes. How appealing. Some friend Gray turned out to be, saying he would treat Natsu to a good time and then abandoning him in his moment of need. A woman approached him and tried to dance for him with how lonely he seemed to be all by himself in the corner, but he excused himself and left to go sit in the car and wait for Gray. Instead of clearing his head, he was now stewing on this scenario. What a great night this turned out to be.


End file.
